


Fault Lines

by Elsey8



Series: Akekita Week 2020 [3]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Art, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Healing, Kissing, M/M, Trauma, i have no idea how to tag this one tbh, just trust me its good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27517456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsey8/pseuds/Elsey8
Summary: Goro and his relationship with art as told by Yusuke.Akekita Week Day 3: Pain/Healing
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kitagawa Yusuke
Series: Akekita Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007616
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: Akekita Week





	Fault Lines

Yusuke points out the source of light in his sketch. 

“It won’t matter now,” he explains. “I’ll do some shading, but it’s mostly just a reference for when I turn it into a painting.”

“I see.” Goro’s eyes scan over the drawing and he hums. “It looks nice. I never understood how artists were able to just...do this kind of stuff.”

Yusuke flips the pencil in his hand to offer it up to Goro without a second thought. He’d never quite gotten over his infatuation with him, so it’s easy now to grasp at a reconnection. 

Akira glares at him from behind the counter, pressing an ice pack over his eye and letting Sojiro fuss slightly over him. There’s still dried blood on Goro’s face too, but his nose bleed has stopped. 

Yusuke doesn’t ask why they fought. He already knows, Goro was dragged here kicking and screaming the whole way he’s sure. 

Goro stares at the pencil, but doesn’t take it. 

“Go on,” Yusuke prompts. 

Goro plucks it away with two fingers, holding it in a loose grip like he really doesn’t want to be touching it even. Yusuke flips to a blank page and slides it across the bar so it’s in front of Goro. 

“I can’t draw,” Goro deadpans. “Please, I don’t want to ruin your supplies.”

“You don’t give a shit,” Akira accuses. 

“Oh shut the hell up,” Goro spits back. “Don’t be a piece of shit when I’m trying to play nice with your friend.”

“Then stop being so  _ fake-- _ ”

“Don’t fight,” Yusuke interrupts. “Goro, please. I’d like to see what you can come up with.”

“I...I can’t,” Goro mutters. 

“Why not?”

Goro flexes his hands and sets the pencil down. He holds them out in front of him, and...oh they’re really shaking. It’s more than a slight tremor, and Yusuke is surprised he was able to take sips of his coffee before. Although it does seem to take a moment of trying to steady them before it gets bad. 

Even now, Goro clenches them into fists before relaxing them. They’re still for a handful of moments before the shaking starts up again. He sighs, something annoyed in the tone. 

“My hands aren’t nearly as steady as they were before the...incident.” Goro winces, dropping his hands into his lap. “I really can’t draw. It requires a dexterity I simply don’t possess anymore. Even if I did, I’ve never been the creative type. Let’s just leave the artistry to you, alright?”

“Nonsense.” Yusuke gestures back to the pencil. “None of that is necessary. Art is an open and debatable concept. By creating, you’ve already made a masterpiece.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Hm. You do.”

“Ha!” Akira snorts, reaching over the counter to flick Goro on the nose. “Take that, asshole. He called you out.”

“Ow!” Goro hisses, reaching up to press at his nose. “You fucking...freaking. Sorry, Sakura. You cretin, you imbecile, you fool, you donkey, you--”

“Whoops, I made him so mad he’s just throwing stupid synoyms at me.”

“You  _ insolent _ , tactless, mannerless…”

Yusuke laughs softly, picking up the discarded pencil with his non dominant hand. On the off page of the sketchbook he starts drawing. He isn’t sure what it is at first, but it slowly forms into two angry blobs surrounded by something much softer and warmer. An abstract version of the view in front of him. 

“Something like that,” he interrupts softly. “See, Goro?”

“Come on, that’s still good,” Goro complains. 

“Yeah, everything Yusuke does is great. He’s much better than you, huh?” Akira sighs. 

There’s the ghost of a grin on his face, and Yusuke watches the fire fill Goro’s eyes in a familiar way. 

“Give me the goddamn pencil,” he grumbles, snatching it from Yusuke’s hand. 

His hands are shaking even worse than before, but now he narrows his gaze at the page. He brings the tip down to the page. It’s mostly shading, dark lines that streak a little too haphazardly across the page because it seems like the more Goro does the more he shakes. 

But the picture forms anyway, a jagged chess piece laying alone on a downed board. 

When Goro pulls the pencil away he huffs. 

“Not quite what I imagined it would turn out like,” he mutters. 

“That’s absolutely gorgeous!” Yusuke pulls his sketchbook back to trail his fingers over the creation. “I actually think the messiness adds to the image. Are you sure you aren’t the creative type?”

Akira glances at it, then smiles. 

“Dramatic as always,” he comments. 

Yusuke reverently traces the lines. A black pawn, lines around it blurred over the amount of times Goro erased and redrew lines. The chessboard squares are uneven and imperfect, and the scattering of the other pieces are all over the place. Messy and crowded. 

It’s absolutely perfect. 

“Well in the end, I was only a pawn, wasn’t I?” Goro drops the pencil on the counter. “I thought it would be fitting.”

“Goro, you must sign it,” Yusuke insists, pressing the tool back into his palm. 

Goro gives him an odd look, something indescribable, unreadable behind his eyes. But he shakily signs his name in the bottom right corner. 

And he says, “Thank you.”

-

Yusuke takes the paintbrush from Goro’s fingers. 

“Hey!” Goro twists with a gasp. “Why you...give that back, thief.”

Yusuke smiles fondly at him, using his edge of a height difference to hold it barely out of Goro’s reach. He knows Goro could get it back with a well placed jab to his stomach or throat, or simply by yanking his arm down. But he humors Yusuke’s little game, reaching hopelessly for it and cursing him out. 

Goro is a messy painter. He seems to have a streak of blue in his hair, and different colors smudge together on his face, fingertips stained an amalgamation of different colors. Somehow he’s got it on his feet as well, and Yusuke isn’t sure what stains on his shirt are new and which are old. At least he has a tarp laid out on the floor. 

“What are the magic words?” Yusuke teases. 

Goro kisses him, then snatches the paintbrush back when Yusuke relaxes into it. 

“Ha!” He waves the brush in his face. “You’re so predictable, Fox.”

“You’re in quite the playful mood today. Normally you never put up with my teasing.”

“Sue me.”

“Never.” Yusuke kisses his cheek. “How’s it going? Is it cooperating with you?”

“Hm, well whenever I paint you it tends to be cooperative.” Goro finishes the streak of blue he was painting. “So...it’s going.”

Goro always paints in shapes and colors, staying far away from details. The shape on his canvas is a body, but it’s always the colors that Goro likes to pay attention to. His care is put into the perfect color combinations in the perfect spots. 

Yusuke knows the painting is of him by now, because of the shade of his hair that’s just right, the way his eyes are uncannily detailed and accurate. Yusuke wonders how long Goro spent on that part to get it like that. 

Goro’s hands still have that slight tremble to them when he raises them to add to the painting. He easily works around it. Over the years it’s lessened, with the help of several forms of therapy. Some of it has to do with his head, and some of it is physical from the damage he sustained in the engine room. It’s improved as he’s healed physically and mentally, but it still remains even if it’s managed now. 

At least it doesn’t seem to bother Goro anymore. 

And it never bothered Yusuke. Least of all because it produces such wonderful artwork. Even though that’s the reason he tells Goro usually, since he knows that’s what he’ll accept. 

Truly, it’s mostly because he loves Goro for those imperfections, not in spite of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> This one could've been longer, and I totally forgot about it until like two hours ago so that's why it's a bit rushed lmao. BUT NEXT ONE!!! I've got IDEAS watch out


End file.
